SPOTLIGHT 434
17/01/2014 17:53
Welcome to the Spot Light! We've got some straight-up rock, funky grooves, psych sounds, rockabilly classics, swingin' R&B, legendary doom, shredding thrash, obscure NWOBHM and pioneering new wave this week! Peep the list for all the latest releases.
PSYCHEDELIC/PROGRESSIVE
CHUCK NORRIS EXPERIMENT - (BLACK) RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES (LP/TRANSUBSTANS)
Flashing out of Gothenburg, Sweden, the rock monster CHUCK NORRIS EXPERIMENT celebrate 10 years as a band with the release of their sixth studio album. CHUCK NORRIS EXPERIMENT has left a trail of CD's, LP's, singles, comps and tributes behind them during the years and they shared vinyl or CD-space with bands like Electric Frankenstein, Mad Sin, Bones, V8 Wankers, Twisted Sister, Mondo Generator, Danko Jones and many more. Most of those releases are long gone, but the band promises to keep on releasing punk rock 7-inch singles like there is no tomorrow. CHUCK NORRIS EXPERIMENT is often believed to have been named after the US martial arts champion Chuck Norris. But as all true believers and lovers of Rock'n'Roll know, the band name is a tribute to the legendary American blues guitarist Charles "Chuck" Norris, who recorded the classic live album 'Los Angeles Flash' in the band's hometown Gothenburg on June 25, 1980.
Listen to the Chuck Norris Experiment HERE.
THIS IS NOWHERE - (BLACK) TURN ON, TUNE DOWN, DROP D (LP/NASONI)
Limited to 400 copies black vinyl. The debut album from This Is Nowhere, who are based in Greece. Expect drenched, heavy, enter-the-psych sounds, served with extra noise and a Funkadelic style groove that getd your mind rolling... to no return. 'Turn On, Tune Down, Drop D' is a revealed prophesy of love and pain. An 8-track journey that a certain black. Timothy Leary would have been proud of it. Vinyl edition plus CD with bonus tracks.
Listen to 'Turn On, Tune Down, Drop D' HERE.
GARAGE PUNK/ROCK & ROLL/ROCKABILLY
DAVIS, HANK - ONE WAY TRACK/SALAMAY (7"/SLEAZY)
Reissue of a cool 1960 rockabilly classic.
Listen to ' One Way Track' HERE.
VARIOUS - JIM JAM GEMS, VOL. 3 (10"/STAG-O-LEE)
PARTY IN THE FRONT, BACK JACK IN THE BACK. Part 3 of the exciting series! Limited edition with wild '50s rhythm'n'blues! Like Vol. 1 and 2 compiled by Stuttgart based DJ (Club Miaow), record collector and illustrator Duke Jens-O-Matic. All tracks were taken from vintage vinyl selected from his own archive. Move the furniture out but keep the piano! Turn the lights Down low, it's Saturday night and we're gonna have a house rent party! If you up fo' shooting craps or bustin' at Black Jack, that's all in the back, but in this living room you gotta get social man, drink, smoke, bounce to the snappy sounds or smooche to them blues. So hop Miss Bunny and jump Mister Bear, if you don't dig this party you ain't nowhere! A-Side: 1. Cootie Williams Rinky Dink 2:30 2. Bonita Walk Right In 2:47 3. Willie Mabon Wow I Feel So Good 2:45 4. Jesse Allen Let's Party 2:17 5. Sonny Boy Williamson Rub A Dub 2:39 B-Side: 1. Tony Middleton Black Jack 2:27 2. Pete Johnson Pete's Mixture 2:47 3. Babs Gonzales House Rent Party 2:53 4. Big John Greer Let It Roll Again 2:56 5. Bea Foote Weed 3:00
VARIOUS - JIM JAM GEMS, VOL. 4 (10"/STAG-O-LEE)
BONGOLOGY! Part 4 of this exciting series! A limited Edition exotica trip! Again compiled by Stuttgart based DJ (Club Miaow), record collector and illustrator Duke Jens-O-Matic. All tracks from vintage vinyl selected from his own archive. This one leads us deep into the field of 50s exotica... Visions of the far and fantastic put a spell on us and feed our longing for that unfulfilled exotic dream. Be it the half naked flower of the islands, winding her body in sultry girations, or the tribal call of the drums, reminding us of our most primitive needs - each of these songs is an exciting invitation to dance under the stars to haunting rhythms. Side A. 1. Lecuona Cuban Boys - Tabu 3:08 2. Cab Calloway - Que Pasa Chiqua 2:32 3. Sugar Boy Crawford - Watch Her, Whip Her 2:20 4. Jimmy Van Eaton - Bo Diddley 2:22 5. Kishore Kurma - Eena Meena Deeka 2:16 Side B. 1. Dinah Washington - Since My Man Done... 2:02 2. Wilmoth Houdini - Dont Do That To Me 2:58 3. Sondi Sodsai - Love Dance 2:21 4. Latin Allstars - Rapture 3:20 5. Julie London - Come On In My House 2:32
VARIOUS - VOODOO RHYTHM COMPILATION, VOL. 4 ( (LP/VOODOO RHYTHM)
Voodoo Rhythm presents a new volume with bands from 7 different countries! Tracks: 01. The Future Primitives - Into The Primitive 02. Die Zorros - Good Bye Baby 03. The Juke Joint Pimps - King Roland's Prayer 04. Hank Haint - Blackout 05. The Monsters - Blow Um Mau Mau 06. Roy and the Devil's Motorcycle - Six Pink Cadillac 07. Becky Lee and Drunkfoot - Old Fashioned Man 08. The Pussywarmers - La Nen La Bambele 09. Heart Attack Alley - Too Hot Blues 10. Mama Rosin With Hipbone Slim & The Kneetremblers - London Zydeco 11. Delaney Davidson - Windy City 12. The Goon Mat & Lord Benardo - What It's All About? 13. Menic - Waiting For Zero.
SLACKJAWS - HARD ROW TO HOE (CD/SLEAZY)
Tracklist: Rockabilly Blues / I Got Tired / Hard Row To Hoe / Anna From Louisiana / Gypsy Woman / A Doggone Feeling / Don't Let Love Break Your Heart / Poor White Trash / One More Time / The Senior Class / Tennessee Shake / One More Drink
VINTAGE BLUES/R&B
TI PARIS - TI PARIS ET SA GUITARE (LP/LITTLE AXE)
A true masterpiece by one of the legends of Haitian music. The debut album by Haiti's favorite troubadour reissued for the first time on vinyl. Beautiful guitar playing with the minimal rhythmic accompaniment of maracas. Haitian blues music at its best. Tip-on cover. Limited edition of 500 copies.
Listen to 'Ti Paris et sa Guitare' HERE.
SOUL/R&B/FUNK/DISCO
BALDELLI, DANIELE - BACK TO MY FUNKY SIDE: THE REMIX LT (12"/MONDO GROOVE)
Earlier this year, Daniele Baldelli released 'Back To My Funky Side' CD, the follow-up to his funk and soul inspired 2005 full-length 'My Funky Side'. On this album, the riotous, horn-heavy funk jam 'Funk Me Again' is joined by a plethora of largely impressive remixes. There's a stunningly dense and dubbed-out of version of 'Fontainebleau' from the Idjut Boys, a smooth and groovy, near Balearic take on 'A Good Day' from DJ Rocca, and a jaunty Italo-meets-classic disco tweak of 'Mellow Game' by Greg Wilson and Derek Kaye. Best of all, though, is Eric Duncan's version of 'Funk Me Again', which turns the original into a driving slab of heavy dub disco with clavs aplenty.
Listen to 'Back To My Funky Side' HERE.
SYBIANN - SPORE (CD/CINEDELIC)
Since 2007, SybiAnn, from Forlì, Italy, creates a real concert where the laptop isn't the main element but one of many within the downbeat alchemy, tribalism, underground disco and psychedelia. A path in that leads closer to electronic music together with the band skills guarantee a unique live experience. SybiAnn shared the stage with Dan Deacon, Archie Bronson Outfit, Black Angels, Zu, Lotus Plaza, Nudge, Holy Other, with dj/producer as Andrew Weatherall, member of Two Lone Swordmen and their songs have been remixed by Daniele Baldelli, Danny Benedettini and many more. The band's new album contains a psychedelic electronic sound, with hints of some late 80s acid house and afro beat, slow and Italo disco. Sequencer-mixed bases, samba-like, tribal rhythms and an interest towards those Badalamenti soundtracks and the ones from Carpenter era.
Listen to 'Spore' HERE.
METAL/STONER/HARDROCK
BLACKFINGER - BLACKFINGER (LP/CHURCH WITHIN)
Following his departure as longtime vocalist for Chicago doom legends TROUBLE in 2008, Eric Wagner promptly removed himself from the spotlight and began intently writing new material of a more personal nature. Those writing sessions would yield the musical inspiration for BLACKFINGER. Described adamantly as a "band" and not a "project", BLACKFINGER began to take shape as a unit in 2009, with Wagner recruiting hometown friends Rico Bianchi and Doug Hakes on guitars, Ben Smith on bass, and Larry Piatz on drums. Over the course of the next four years, the group would meticulously craft and commit eleven tracks to tape. These tracks, with their many peaks and valleys of heaviness and melancholy, along with Wagner's signature vocals, would ultimately become the self titled debut album. 'Blackfinger' will mark the singer's first recorded output since TROUBLE's 2007 release 'Simple Mind Condition'. Between 2010 and 2012, BLACKFINGER would find themselves playing a handful of high profile hometown shows in the Chicago area to great acclaim, and Dark Star Records would tease the crowds further with their release of the band's "All The Leaves Are Brown" single. Add two triumphant appearances at Milwaukee's Days Of The Doomed Fest I & II, and interest in BLACKFINGER quickly became a major buzz in the doom metal scene and beyond. In August of 2013, fans of Eric and BLACKFINGER were put on notice that it would not be much longer before the debut record would be unleashed.
Check out the promo video HERE.
New High Roller reissues! Classic shredding thrash metal and obscure NWOBHM!
DARK ANGEL - (BLACK) DARKNESS DESCENDS (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
150 x black vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, cardboard lyric sheet, poster. No doubt about it - Darkness Descends is one of the most important albums in Thrash Metal history. Gene Hoglan's drumming on songs like "Merciless Death", "The Burning Of Sodom" or "Black Prophecies" is simply not of this world! As you all know, Hoglan later moved on to play with Chuck Schuldiner's Death and more recently with Testament as well as Devin Townsend (with whom he recorded several albums). Darkness Descends (originally released in 1986) is widely regarded as Dark Angel's 'classic' record. The roots of Dark Angel go back to the year 1981 when Don Doty (vocals), Jim Durkin (guitars), Rob Yahn (bass) and Mike Andrade (drums) formed the band in Downey, California, during the early days of the Bay Area Thrash invasion. Their original band name was Shellshock which they changed to Dark Angel in 1983. In 1985 the first record We Have Arrived was released. We Have Arrived was a decent enough Thrash Metal debut record with fast and furious songs such as "Welcome To The Slaughter House" or the title track but Dark Angel really found their own style on the second album Darkness Descends. They had moved towards more elaborate compositions with technical twists and turns (plus Gene Hoglan's trademark lyrics dealing with psychological illnesses and traumata).
Listen to 'Darkness Descends' HERE.
DARKNESS - (BLACK) DEFENDERS OF JUSTICE (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
Limited edition of 150 copies on black vinyl. Presented in a heavy cardboard cover, including an insert and poster. High Roller Records keep digging deep into the history of thrash, and here is another treasure we unearthed: With the re-release of "Defenders of Justice" from 1988, the world sees the return of Darkness! Hailing from the famous Ruhr Area, the band was forged right in the heart of German thrash: They formed in 1984, just after having been to a Tormentor (later Kreator) show together, and they took their first steps in songwriting and rehearsing at the famous Zeche Carl. Now, 30 years later, Darkness have returned. Was it the idea from the start to make the reunion happen in this special year? Arnd, second oldest member of Darkness, isn’t too sure about this: “Yes and no. The idea to reanimate Darkness actually came up long before our 25th anniversary show. But the show was something like a jump-start for us. We felt that the right guys were playing together and that it was the best time to start again.”
Listen to 'Defenders of Justice' HERE.
EXUMER - (BLACK) RISING FROM THE SEA (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
Presented in a heavy cardboard cover, including insert and poster. Pressed on black vinyl, limited to 150 copies. Exumer are one of the living legends of German Thrash. After having re-released their stunning debut 'Possessed By Fire' from 1986, High Roller Records now give you the chance to add their second album to your vinyl collection. 'Rising From The Sea' from 1987 was Exumer's last full-length before they split in 1991.
Listen to 'Rising From the Sea' HERE.
HEAVY TIGER - SAIGON KISS (BLACK) (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
300 black vinyls, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet Three very young girls from the lovely city of Stockholm, formed Heavy Tiger in 2010. Maja Linn explains: "It all really was the outcome of my frustration in my former band, due to the other band members' lack of dedication. I quit that band three years ago with a clear vision in my head and determined to put together a killer act with thorough ambitions. I started to search and found the best! Sara and Astrid are great musicians and we get along very well." Heavy Tigers' first record was a 7" EP entitled Talk Of The Town for a tiny Spanish label. High Roller Records is now proud to release the band's first album.
LIVING DEATH - (BLACK) METAL REVOLUTION (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
150 x black vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, poster. With their second album Metal Revolution Living Death carried on where they had left off with Vengeance of Hell. With similar results. The production of the nine songs was again well under par compared to Thrash Metal classics such as Slayers Reign in Blood or Kreators Extreme Aggressions. In Andreas Oberhoff Living Death had found a competent new drummer. However, singer Thorsten "Toto" Bergmann was not willing to tone down his vocal style (which had by 1986 become the main trademark of the band). The press once again had a field day. Reviews could not have been much worse. Only a few magazines (like Metal Forces from the UK) did get what the band was trying to achieve. All in all, Metal Revolution was only a slightly less extreme record in comparison to the debut Vengeance of Hell. The album was originally released on the newly founded Earthshaker label (home of Warlock) in 1986. With "Screaming from a Chamber", "Deep in Hell" or "Grippin a Heart" it once again featured a fair number of raw German Thrash Metal classics. After the release of Metal Revolution the boys from Velbert ("Dead City" in the words of fellow Thrashers Violent Force) struggled on. Various line-up changes (Atomic Steif joined on drums, the Kelch bothers left) resulted in a more technical style of Thrash Metal though. Albums such as Protected from Reality (1987), Worlds Neuroses (1988) or Killing in Action (1991) were moving more and more in the direction of bands like Mekong Delta (or Sieges Even for that matter) .
Listen to 'Killing Machine' HERE.
LIVING DEATH - (BLACK) VENGEANCE OF HELL (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
150 black vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet, poster, REMIX VERSION 1985
Listen to 'Vengeance of Hell' HERE.
NECRONOMICON (GERMANY/METAL) - (BLACK) APOCALYPTIC NIGHTMARE (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
150 x black vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, insert, poster Kreator, Destruction and Sodom. Yes, all three are German Thrash Metal legends. Kreator and Sodom have never been away and Destruction are currently also going from strength to strength again after a few break-ups, line-up changes and re-unions. So far, so good. But what about a band called Necronomicon? Never heard of them? Well, life could have been so much different ... If, yes, if Necronomicon had had the same luck as the above mentioned three in signing a deal with one of the prominent German labels in the mid-1980s. But instead of securing a deal with Steamhammer (like Sodom and Destruction), Noise (Kreator) or even Roadrunner, Necronomicon ended up with ... Wave Records.
Listen to 'Apocalyptic Nightmare' HERE.
NECRONOMICON (GERMANY/METAL) - NECRONOMICON (BLACK) (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
150 x black vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, insert, poster. Kreator, Destruction and Sodom. Yes, all three are German Thrash Metal legends. Kreator and Sodom have never been away and Destruction are currently also going from strength to strength again after a few break-ups, line-up changes and re-unions. So far, so good. But what about a band called Necronomicon? Never heard of them? Well, life could have been so much different. If, yes, if Necronomicon had had the same luck as the above mentioned three in signing a deal with one of the prominent German labels in the mid-80s. But instead of securing a deal with Steamhammer (like Sodom and Destruction), Noise (Kreator) or even Roadrunner, Necronomicon ended up with ... Wave Records.
NOCTURNAL - STORMING EVIL (BLACK) (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
300 x black vinyls, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, poster, 4 page insert. Nocturnal dont need a long introduction. Formed in 1997 from the ashes of Bestial Desecration, they set out to play riff-based old school thrash in the vein of Destruction, Sodom, Exumer, Assassin and Kreator, to name just a few. Their first two albums speak for themselves, being a feast for everyone whos into good old 80s thrash. Their debut "Arrival of the Carnivore" from 2004 was an amazing piece of unholy pure 80s worshipping underground thrash, and the second output "Violent Revenge" from 2009 was no less great, being the first album featuring Tyrannizer on vocals. As the two full length-albums before "Storming Evil" got mighty fine reviews, comparing Nocturnal to Tankard, Kreator, Possessed, Venom and of course Destruction, it would be a shame if the new album wont follow the same path.
Check out the official video for 'Rising Demons' HERE.
SPARTA - WELCOME TO HELL (BLACK) (LP/HIGH ROLLER)
350 x black vinyl, 425gsm heavy card board cover, cardboard lyric sheet. Sparta is one of the more obscure bands of the glorious New Wave Of British Heavy Metal period. The band was formed in late 1979 by Tony Foster on lead guitar. The line-up was completed by Tony Warren on bass guitar, Karl Reders on vocals, Steve Snake Reders on guitar and Paul Radge Reders on drums. In 1980, Nottinghamshire-based label Suspect Records put out Spartas debut single pairing "Fast Lane" with "Fighting To Be Free". In 1981, the band unleashed their second 7" single Angel Of Death (with "Tonight" on the flipside), once again on Suspect Records. The same year their label published a compilation of local bands under the name of Scene Of The Crime (the original vinyl sells for anything up to 100 English Pounds nowadays). Sparta quickly gained a healthy local following by gigging with Diamond Head, Praying Mantis, Lionheart and Budgie. In 2011, Use Your Weapons Well, the ultimate Sparta compilation featuring 25 songs and spanning the band's whole career from 1979 up until 1990, was issued on vinyl and CD via High Roller Records. The record was very well received and the profile of the band got bigger than it ever was. This led to the classic Sparta line-up recording their first-ever studio album entitled Welcome To Hell (after 35 long years!).
Listen to 'Welcome to My Nightmare' HERE.
POST-PUNK
LETATLIN - NATSUKO: THE 11TH STORY (CD/OUT OF PRINT)
2014 album by Amsterdam-based visionary post-punk band Letatlin. Comes in a special eco pack with beautiful artwork. Tracks: 01. 39th Of May 02. H. Dynamo 03. Stiez Syndrome 04. The Railway Man 05. De Appel 06. Rabbit 07. Spectrum In Your Head 08. The Lake 09. Vivid 10. Lomax Tweewielers.
Listen to 'Natsuko: the 11th Story' HERE.
GOTHIC/DARKWAVE/ELECTRO
SOPHYA - WORDS AND SOUNDS (CD/OUT OF PRINT)
2012 album on CD. According to CLAN OF XYMOX's RONNY MOORINGS, SOPHYA is "like listening for the first time to the works of the early COCTEAU TWINS, FAITH AND THE MUSE, CURVE and even THE SUNDAYS...SOPHYA could have been a band on the 4AD rooster in their heyday." Tracks: 01. More 02. Another Day 03. Captive Beauty 04. Downstairs 05. Art 06. Third Wish Part I 07. Sixteen Rings (For A Memory), 08. Desire 09. Blossom 10. Fifty Four 11. Desert Heart 12. Winter Signs (The Dream II) 13. The Games They Play 14. Pale Blue Moon.
Listen to 'Words & Sounds' HERE.
ROCK/POP/WAVE
CHEVEU - BUM (LP/BORN BAD)
Cheveu built its third LP on the ashes of those unholy hours, around the majestic 'Polonia', a track on which David Lemoine recites a few lines from Bertrand Blier's 'Buffet Froid' with the set expression of a man empowered by the fact he just shit his pants, while Etienne Nicolas and Olivier Demeaux slowly unwind the rapturous scenery of a theologian western. The song is beautiful, grotesque, heart-rending, just like a scene out of Jean Rays Malpertuis backed by a funeral choir of angelwitches, and is definitely one of the most amazing things youll hear this year. 'BUM', just like 'Polonia', is an inner trip, an odyssey bordered by the walls of an antique mansion, full of baroque embroidery and padded club chairs, perfect aural counterpart for the paintings, of Rousseau, master of the exotic which -paradoxically- never ventured out of France. Cheveu's third record is full-on excess and absurdity, but is also much more legible and effective than their previous efforts (see 'Juan In A Million' or the sure-fire hit 'Albinos', which lyrics are taken from a monologue in Harmony Korine's 'Gummo'), even traditional at times ('Pirate Bay' seems like the very first Cheveu song where guitars sound like guitars). This time, the band opted for a much more live-based, organic and fully-produced sound, replacing 1000s of messy cut-ups and Cheveus shitgaze blur by throbbing organs (played by Xavier Klaine and recorded at Saint Merri Church) and wall-of-sound choirs (arranged in Tel-Aviv by Maya Dunietz, already in charge of the lush string arrangements on 1000). The result : 10 tracks drier and sharper than anything Cheveu has done before, definitely out-of-this-world but elegantly mannered, veined with unaltered genius and ending with the spectacular 'Johnny Hurry Up', an unreal track which owes Wall Of Voodoo and X as much as Francois de Roubaix and crowns Cheveu as the masters of a new world where love burns over piles of rotting meat and shit.
Listen to 'Polonia' HERE.
KOFE - BALANCE (+CD) (LP/OTHER VOICES)
An official release of an album recorded nearly 30 years ago by the legendary Leningrad new wave band. In many ways, Kofe was well ahead of its time, and is sadly less known to the wider public now, although in the mid-1980s it was one of the pioneering new wave bands on the Russian rock scene. The name Kofe (which simply means coffee) hinted at the favorite drink of the Leningrad in-crowd, as well as being a subtle act of semiotic distancing from the cheap-and-strong wine tradition of the previous "hippie" generation of Russian rockers. In January 1986 band recorded their second (and sadly the last) album, 'Balans'. One of the songs from this album, 'Zero', quickly became a notable hit in the city and beyond: a video to the song was shown on the Leningrad TV programmes Pop Antenna and Spinning Disks, both broadcast nationally. However, certain ideological differences started to emerge among Kofe members and the band broke up in late 1986.
Listen to 'Balance' HERE.
FOLK/ACID FOLK
JIVEK, KENTIN -& MIRO SNEJDR- - VOIR DIRE (CD/SELF RELEASE)
'Voir Dire' represents what is and what feels right and real. On the album a few genres are approached and touched upon, but parameters of a given genre never dictate what is meant to be achieved musically... 'Voir Dire' - to speak the truth... Featuring Miro Snejdr (Death In June).
Listen to 'Voir Dire' HERE.
Blog
Previous editions:
13/03/2024 09:08 SPOTLIGHT 10
06/03/2024 10:32 SPOTLIGHT 9
27/02/2024 07:31 SPOTLIGHT 8
19/02/2024 16:36 SPOTLIGHT 7
13/02/2024 08:19 SPOTLIGHT 6
06/02/2024 09:02 SPOTLIGHT 5
29/01/2024 17:52 SPOTLIGHT 4
22/01/2024 19:20 SPOTLIGHT 3
16/01/2024 08:42 SPOTLIGHT 2
09/01/2024 07:33 SPOTLIGHT 1
19/12/2023 08:48 SPOTLIGHT 50
11/12/2023 19:25 SPOTLIGHT 49
05/12/2023 08:38 SPOTLIGHT 48
28/11/2023 08:07 SPOTLIGHT 47
20/11/2023 17:59 SPOTLIGHT 46
14/11/2023 08:08 SPOTLIGHT 45
07/11/2023 08:13 SPOTLIGHT 44
31/10/2023 08:17 SPOTLIGHT 43
24/10/2023 08:10 SPOTLIGHT 42
17/10/2023 08:51 SPOTLIGHT 41